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Sunday, November 19, 2017

LA Weekly proudly presents its 4th annual Sips & Sweets on
December 14, 2017 at the Petersen Automotive Museum, where you can sample
delicious sweets and sip on handcrafted cocktails. LA’s top bakers, most
respected mixologists, and artisanal craftspeople will be showing off their
best for you to see, touch, taste, and drink.

Sweets from the 2015 LA Weekly's Sips & Sweets

A portion of the proceeds of the event will be donated to Food Forward. Food Forward
rescues fresh local produce that would otherwise go to waste, connecting this
abundance with people in need, and inspiring others to do the same. This
volunteer-powered, grassroots group of Southern Californians are passionate
about reconnecting to our food system, promoting the issue of food justice, and
making changes concerning hunger in our community. They convene in private
properties, public spaces, and farmers & wholesale markets to recover
excess fruits and vegetables, donating 100% to local direct-service agencies
who feed our community’s most vulnerable. Along with the distribution partners,
they provide food to over 100,000 people a month across Southern California.

Sunday, October 29, 2017

This post was sponsored by OC Bus but the opinions expressed here
are my own.

Although I’ve
been a Southern California resident for over 40 years, I have never ridden on
our local transportation system (except for the Monorail and the Disneyland
Railroad). OC Bus has made the way we commute around Orange County so much
better. They have made so many resources, like an easy-to-navigate website
offering real-time arrivals, different pass options, and now a mobile app.
Whether you are commuting to work, running errands, or planning a day of fun,
OC Bus is a great transportation option.

The nearest route for me is 38, which runs from Anaheim Hills Festival (a center
with lots of shopping and restaurant options) to Lakewood (Del Amo Boulevard
and Pioneer Boulevard). For Orange County, this route travels along La Palma
Avenue. For those of us who drive, we sometime miss places that we pass on a
freeway or while just concentrating on the traffic around you. But, if you are
riding on the OC Bus, you see places that are new or just forgot about since it
is not on your normal route. La Palma Avenue is one of these streets that has a
lot of hidden adventures waiting to be had.

We planned our route to start on one of the earliest buses heading
west. Our first stop was on Beach Boulevard and La Palma Avenue. Can you guess
where we are going? There are actually many places to go near that
intersection: Knott’s Berry Farm, Soak City, Medieval Times Dinner &
Tournament, Pirates Dinner Adventure, Rock and Brews, and Teatro Martini. If
you guessed Knott’s Berry Farm, you are correct but we were not going into the
park. On the weekends, Mrs.
Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant is open for breakfast. When the
hubby and I were dating back in the 1990s, one of our favorite restaurants was
Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant. The restaurant has been recently
renovated and looks like a rustic home in the country. And yes, there is
chicken on the menu for breakfast. Fried Chicken Filet and Eggs in Nest is
definitely a breakfast food find. And it was absolutely amazing! The chicken
filet was fried to perfection like chicken katsu, crispy on the outside and
juicy and tender on the inside. My sunny side up eggs were served up “toad in
the whole”-style. The breakfast comes with their famous buttermilk biscuits,
butter, and boysenberry jam.

After breakfast, it was time to start heading back east towards
Buena Park Downtown (formerly the Buena Park Mall). You can wait for the next
bus or you can leisurely walk a couple blocks along La Palma Avenue. On the
southeast corner of La Palma and Stanton Avenue is Buena Park Downtown. On
Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Buena Park
Farmers’ Market has a variety of farm-fresh Certified California
Grown fruits and vegetables, local food artisans, arts, crafts, jewelry, and
live music. I love strolling through a farmers’ market to see what fresh
produce is in season and check out new food vendors. The food find here was Parmigiano
Reggiano Spread. Their cheese spread was amazing, but the amazing
different accoutrements like olive tapenades and other Mediterranean-inspired
flavors just blew my mind. They would be great as a dip, added to salads,
spreading on sandwiches, etc.

Buena Park Downtown has a great selection of restaurants. One of
them in particular brings back food memories for me. Portillo’s is an
iconic-Chicago eatery with only two locations in California, one in Buena Park
and the other in Moreno Valley. But, if you love Chicago eats like I do, you’ll
love Portillo’s. Chicago’s iconic foods are deep-dish pizzas, Italian beef
sandwiches, and hot dogs. Portillo’s has two of them. Italian Beef Sandwich is
made with slow-roasted beef served on freshly baked Turano French bread. Best,
and messiest, way to have it is “dipped”. The whole sandwich, bread and all, is
dipped into their famous gravy. Add peppers and/or hot giardiniera peppers for
acidic and spicy notes. Portillo’s is also known for their hot dogs. We call
them Chicago dogs, but they just call them Jumbo Hot Dogs served on a poppy
seed bun and topped with mustard, relish, celery salt, chopped onions, sliced
tomatoes, kosher pickle, and sport peppers. It may seem like a wacky creation, but
it’s iconic flavor has people coming in droves just for a bite of one.

After filling our tummies with yummies, it was time to catch a
ride on the OC Bus to our next stop in Anaheim. Craft breweries have been
popping up all around the country. Beer connoisseurs will plan their vacations
around visiting breweries and locals flock to their favorites for happy hour or
a fun time on the weekend. Bottle
Logic Brewing is one of these fan favorites! You’ll see in the video
how busy they are on Saturdays. A great way to try a brewery’s beer is with a
flight. Bottle Logic has a flight called “The Constants” which profiles 5 beers
that are pretty much available year-round. They have a lot of seasonal and
hyper-seasonal beers as well. The Autumn 2017 flight includes (714) Blond
(Blond Ale), Lagerithm (American Dark Lager), Cobaltic Porter (Baltic Style
Porter), Odyssey of Oddities (Chai Porter), and Haze Maze Cave (East Coast
Style IPA).

This is just one food+drink adventure that you can partake in at
your leisure or make up your own while using the route maps on ocbus.com.
Choose your next adventure! OC Bus is also an easy and budget-friendly way to
make your daily commute. Let OC Bus doing the driving for a relaxing commute.

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About Me

OC Food Diva is a local foodie in Orange County, CA with 11 years experience in restaurants - from kitchen to service to menu & restaurant design. With an adventurous appetite, Chelsea scours Orange County (and the rest of the USA) for great eats.